People like to bring up the “greats” a lot when discussing sports, football not excluded. Especially for New England Patriot fans, these types of discussions can be, as you might say, narrow minded. I know it’s tempting to go with the mainstream media’s conformist answer of “Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. The Second” as the greatest to ever put on a Patriots’ jersey. But I think people are forgetting one important statistic.

Tom Brady may be good, but dwindles in the legacy that Eric Decker leaves behind, which cannot be matched by nearly any other Patriot player. You can check my math on this one, fellow Spin Factory subscribers, but I’m pretty sure this is bulletproof:

Tom Brady has, in fact, loss a regular game as a Patriot, yes? Hmmm. And if I’m also correct on the other end, Eric Decker has never lost a regular season game for the Patriots. Hmmm.

The undefeated god of a receiver that is Eric Decker will go up in the rafters of the New England Patriot’s long-written history. His tenacity and unwillingness to lose is incomparable to any I’ve ever seen before. The only other thing that comes even close to this is the great Martellus Bennett’s nearly undefeated 2018 playoff run. Hmm.

Okay, you got me, I’ll give credit where credit is due, Martellus Bennett is the second best New England Patriot of all time. It goes:

Took a look at the Celtic’s schedule the other day. You would think that the arguably most prime-time special games of the NBA season, opening night and Christmas Day, would feature one of the most legendary rivalry in sports… Celtics and Lakers. LeBron’s recent, off-season retreat from Cleveland to the west coast; I can’t think of a better battleground for this rivalry that has been the highlight of professional basketball for over half a century.

But, no. Mr. Silver has decided that the Celtics are set to play the Philadelphia 76ers on both opening day and on Christmas. Really, Mr. Commissioner? This is the rivalry you want to establish? Yeah, the Celtics and Lakers have only played twelve championship series against one another, no big deal. And those cowards in Los Angeles finally decide to purchase some talent and you still cant make this happen. Adam, I’m begging you, sir.

The 76ers? That’s who you want to pair my Celtics with during the most popular games in the NBA’s regular season? They had one good year last year winning 52 games. They won 28 games the season before that, and 10 the year before that. Adam, buddy, pal… This is the team you want to waste perfectly good television spots on one of the few great talents remaining in the East? Those bums?

Mr. Commissioner, its bad enough I have to see Joel “Made of Glass” Embiid’s trolling my boy Aaron Baynes on twitter. You got us, Joel, haha. The third pick in the 2014 draft is, in fact, more talented than the undrafted Australian fellow. You got him, Joel. But our eighth man still defended you and had you gasping for air by the end of every third quarter in that playoff series.

Is Ben Simmons going to be leading the vanguard against the Celtics? Good luck. My jumper looks like Ray Allen’s compared to his broken shot. He scored one point against us in a playoff game as starting point guard. One point! It would almost be laughable if it wasn’t sadder than “Marley & Me.”

Whatever, Mr. Silver. Let us take these clowns on opening night, and then again on Christmas day. I don’t care. A win is a win. I’m just trying to look out for you here. There’s money to be made on ads and merch, buddy. Let the Celtics take on the retreating King who fled Ohio for the West Coast.

For some reason, the powers-that-be decided that periodically throughout the year, young sports fans have to dump sixty dollars of their not so hardworking money into the various games replicated with minor adjustment and roster updates.

You ever think about that? Sixty bucks for the same game year in and year out, multiplied over and over depending on your game preference. Personally, I’m a big 2K guy, love Madden and I’ll usually dabble with either NHL or The Show depending on my mood. But it’s the same game…

I recently got the prestigious Madden 19. My review: its remarkably similar to its predecessor, Madden 18. It has the same problems. Tackling is ridiculous. Screen passes are either touchdowns or an automatic pick-six against you. And of course, the glitch during online play that’ll just ruin your day. Maybe even the rest of your week.

Whatever. I’m a slave to the good people over at EA Sports. I’ll pay my sixty dollar annual fee just to play as the Patriots, simulating their games every Sunday for some weird reason of mine. But what do I know?

As we approach the NFL season, it will certainly be interesting how it will play out. Below is how our NFL guys 😉 believe this season will pan out including division winners, MVP and Super Bowl matchups! We would love to hear your feedback.

AFC East Winner:

Sauce: New England Patriots

Dimes: New England Patriots

Burt B: New England Patriots

El Capitano: New England Patriots

Flan: New England Patriots

Shmurda: New England Patriots

All of our guys believe the Patriots will win the division. No surprise who else would win? The only division we all agree on..

AFC West Winner:

Sauce: Los Angeles Chargers

Dimes: Oakland Raiders

Burt B: Oakland Raiders

El Capitano: Kansas City Chiefs

Flan: Los Angeles Chargers

Shmurda: Los Angeles Chargers

All over the place on this one. But really who is going to win this division? Can Jon Gruden bring the Raiders back to the promise land? Will the Chargers finally pull thru?

AFC North Winner:

Sauce: Pittsburgh Steelers

Dimes: Baltimore Ravens

Burt B: Pittsburgh Steelers

El Capitano: Pittsburgh Steelers

Flan: Baltimore Ravens

Shmurda: Pittsburgh Steelers

Flan and Dimes might be smoking crack on this one, but the Ravens defense is tough and mean again. Watch out, Pittsburgh.

AFC South Winner:

Sauce: Tennessee Titans

Dimes: Houston Texans

Burt B: Houston Texans

El Capitano: Jacksonville Jaguars

Flan: Jacksonville Jaguars

Shmurda: Houston Texans

I was surprised to not see a lot of Jaguars on this one, but I guess I am not the only one not high on the Jaguars this year. The Texans could be deadly this year and a lot of our guys are really high on them as you’ll see later on..

AFC Wildcard Teams:

Sauce: Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars

Dimes: Jacksonville Jaguars and Pittsburgh Steelers

Burt B: Jacksonville Jaguars and Los Angeles Chargers

El Capitano: Tennessee Titans and Buffalo Bills

Flan: Pittsburgh Steelers and Houston Texans

Shmurda: Oakland Raiders and Jacksonville Jaguars

The only team here I don’t see making the playoffs is those big bad Buffalo Bills. but you never know. I also don’t think any other team not-mentioned will end up making playoffs except for other chosen division winners in the Ravens and Chiefs.

NFC East Winner:

Sauce: New York Giants

Dimes: New York Giants

Burt B: Philadelphia Eagles

El Capitano: Philadelphia Eagles

Flan: Dallas Cowboys

Shmurda: New York Giants

I don’t know if most of us still have PTSD from the Super Bowl and don’t remember how good the Eagles were but don’t count out the Giants and Cowboys high powered offenses. And that Giant’s defense still has some power to it.

NFC West:

Sauce: Los Angeles Rams

Dimes: San Francisco 49ers

Burt B: Los Angeles Rams

El Capitano: Los Angeles Rams

Flan: San Francisco 49ers

Shmurda: Los Angeles Rams

Flan and Dimes love crack. I don’t see how the 49ers win this division. The Rams got really really good and could contend for the Super Bowl this year.

NFC North Winner:

Sauce: Minnesota Vikings

Dimes: Green Bay Packers

Burt B: Minnesota Vikings

El Capitano: Minnesota Vikings

Flan: Minnesota Vikings

Shmurda: Detroit Lions

Shmurda loves Matt Stafford so no surprise there and Aaron Rodgers is still elite so I can’t argue with Dimes here. But the Minnesota Vikings should be the favorite to win the division. Their defense is dominant and Dalvin Cook/Kirk Cousins should improve their offense.

NFC South Winner:

Sauce: Atlanta Falcons

Dimes: New Orleans Saints

Burt B: New Orleans Saints

El Capitano: New Orleans Saints

Flan: Atlanta Falcons

Shmurda: New Orleans Saints

I think it’s reasonable to have both of these teams winning the division and it will probably come down to head-to-head matchups. Both have high powered offenses and defenses have shown to be good at-times. Surprised no one said the Carolina Panthers!

NFC Wildcard Teams:

NFC Wildcard Teams:

Sauce: New Orleans Saints and Green Bay Packers

Dimes: Minnesota Vikings and Atlanta Falcons

Burt B: Atlanta Falcons and Detroit Lions

El Capitano: Atlanta Falcons and Green Bay Packers

Flan: Philadelphia Eagles and New Orleans Saints

Shmurda: Green Bay Packers and Atlanta Falcons

The NFC is stacked and I could honestly say that all of these teams have the potential to make the playoffs. Teams I think could also make a move: Carolina Panthers, Dallas Cowboys (who have been mentioned once) and even those old Seattle Seahawks maybe?

NFL MVP Award:

Sauce: LeVeon Bell, Pittsburgh Steelers

Dimes: Tom Brady, New England Patriots

Burt B: Deshaun Watson, Houston Texans – “He also did PED’s to recover from his torn ACL, but didn’t get caught and will come back and easily lead the Texans to the AFC championship”

El Capitano: Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints

Flan: Todd Gurley, LA Rams

Shmurda: Tom Brady, New England Patriots

Personally I like all these picks. You got your obvious Tom Brady and Drew Brees. Surprise in Deshaun Watson, which could actually happen. And the two players I like most this year for this award in Bell and Gurley. Obviously there will be a few others in contention for this award though. And Burt assuming Deshaun did PEDs is so extreme it might be true.

I love the Chargers this year and if they have a big year Derwin James will be a huge reason why. Saquon is a stud but we will see if he can stay healthy. Fuck Ronald Jones, Mr. Capitano. And I really like Lamar Jackson and think he should start over Flacco from Day 1.

AFC Championship:

Sauce: Los Angeles Chargers over New England Patriots

Dimes: New England Patriots over Houston Texans

Burt B: Houston Texans over New England Patriots – “The Texans are primed for a run, Clowney and Watt at the front, with Deshaun running the offense… gonna be a good one, but I don’t think the pats Defense will hang on”

El Capitano: New England Patriots over Houston Texans

Flan: Houston Texans over New England Patriots

Shmurda: New England Patriots over Houston Texans

I don’t know about the rest of these guys but personally I just can’t see the Patriots lose another Super Bowl and the NFC is stacked this year. Our defense and offense can not hang with the NFC (but who knows). I love the Chargers this year, I think their defense is elite, they picked up near the end of the season last year and it would be great to see Phil Rivers in the Super Bowl. I was the only guy to not have the Patriots-Texans AFC Championship match-up.

NFC Championship:

Sauce: Los Angeles Rams over Minnesota Vikings

Dimes: Green Bay Packers over San Francisco 49ers

Burt B: Los Angeles Rams over New Orleans Saints

El Capitano: New Orleans Saints over Philadelphia Eagles

Flan: Minnesota Vikings over Atlanta Falcons

Shmurda: New Orleans Saints over Green Bay Packers

First off, bitter Patriots fans: only one of us has the Eagles making it to the NFC Championship, none to the Super Bowl. Dimes is very high on the 49ers and Jimmy G. Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers with a potential return to the Super Bowl. And how about them LA Football Rams. I got an All-Los Angeles Super Bowl. That would be great for football.

Superbowl:

Sauce: Los Angeles Rams over Los Angeles Chargers

Dimes: New England Patriots over Green Bay Packers

Burt B: Houston Texans over Los Angeles Rams

El Capitano: New England Patriots over New Orleans Saints

Flan: Minnesota Vikings over Houston Texans

Shmurda: New England Patriots over New Orleans Saints

And the Super Bowl Champion is…..either the Rams, Patriots, Texans, or Vikings, Now that would be a good bet either 4 of those teams win the Super Bowl versus the rest of the field. As stated before, I love the Rams this year, they got better on both sides of the ball and Goff and Gurley presumably got better themselves, they will be a tough team to beat this year. Watch out.

BOLD PREDICTIONS:

Sauce: “The Philadelphia Eagles will finish in last place in their division. Super

For this post I’m picking my starting five for the 2018-2019 NBA Season of players I’m genuinely scared of. This really has nothing to do with their basketball skills, but I’d want these guys backing me up when it comes to the intimidation factor in the NBA.

PG- Marcus Smart

I mean, what can I say, Marcus Smart is a DOG. This guy would accept an 80 game suspension for fighting an entire team just for calling one of his own teammates ugly. Every scuffle the Celtics got into this past season, Marcus was either the instigator or right behind the target backing them up. This even dates back to college when he stood his ground and He is a phenomenal teammate, and I would not look at him the wrong way while on the court.

SG- Bradley Beal

The shooting guard position is a tough one because there is a lot of cowards and small guys around the NBA, but one of the tougher minded players out their is Bradley Beal. After he pretty much threw Draymond Green to the ground, I knew Beal was a guy who can hold his own ground. With the scrappy duo of John Wall and himself, I think Beal is definitely a great teammate to have backing you up when things get chippy on the floor.

SF- James Johnson

Black belt in karate, 7-0 MMA record, is there anymore I have to say? Those are pretty impressive feats to add to his resume especially while also being 6’9 and athletic enough to keep up with today’s NBA. Johnson is a hot head usually starting scuffles with opposing teams but the smarter players will not mess with this guy because they’d watch their life flash before their eyes.

PF- Serge Ibaka

This guy is another big boy. After his attempted haymakers thrown at Robin Lopez a couple years back and his fight with the other guy on this list James Johnson, I knew Serge was not the guy to talk shit to. Ibaka is built exactly how a power forward in the NBA should be and is ripped enough to serve as your team’s intimidation factor, while still having the basketball skills to back up his tough guy persona.

C- Steven Adams

This guy is a monster. You don’t see many altercations involving Adams purely because everyone knows he could end their life right there and then if he really wanted to. Steven Adams is also the youngest in his family of 18 kids…18!!!! How crazy is that!? They must have been making daily trips to the grocery store spending $300 on dinner for one night. His savage of a father stood 6 ft. 11 inches and had 18 children with 5 women, one of them, being an Olympic gold medalist in the shot put, Valerie Adams AKA Steven’s mother. With a crazy back story like that and a 7 ft. 255 pound frame, Steven Adams is not one to mess around with, and will always be there to separate entire teams from each other when it comes down to a scuffle.

Last night’s annual pay-per-view Summerslam saw Brock Lesnar defend his title against Roman Reigns, Alex Bliss defending the Raw Women’s Title against Ronda Rousey, and Seth Rollins competing for the Intercontinental Title agains Dolph Ziggler. Here is my recap for all you WWE fanatics.

Match of the night:

Dolph Ziggler defending his title against Seth Rollins opened the show. These men main evented Battleground just a month ago in a 30min Iron Man match. So to see them begin the show last night was a bit odd to me especially with Dean Ambrose back in the mix. This match started out slow with a ton of technically wrestling, but 10min in, they had the crowd on their feet. Near fall after near fall and with the outside distractions of Drew McIntyre and Dean Ambrose added to the drama. The high point of the match was the reverse suplex off the top rope that Seth Rollins reversed and hit Ziggler with a power slam. At the end, Seth Rollins kicked Dolph’s head off and ended him with a curb stomp.

Result: Seth Rollins wins the IC Title

Grade: A+

AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe

Samoa Joe has flirted back and forth with high end programs ever since debuting on the WWE roster. He went up against the longest reigning WWE champion on Smackdown Live, AJ Styles. I personally enjoyed this feud because of how personal each superstar got. Joe introduced Styles’ family into the mix by implying he would end Aj’s career after the match. As the match went back and forth last night, as a bloody AJ laid on the ground, Joe grabbed the microphone and said ” don’t worry I will be your new daddy” to Aj’s wife and daughter. This ignited AJ to the point where he got disqualified for beating Joe with a steel chair.

Ronda Rousey challenged the champion Alexa Bliss in a short battle. Alexa is a top 3 diva and was squashed last night in a match that I wouldn’t consider “wrestling”. She was forced to tap out to a vicious arm bar that actually looked like Alexa’s arm popped out of her socket (the only highlight of the match). All Rousey can do is bully her opponent in the corner, throw jabs as she screams, then tosses her opponent around. I understand she is new to the company, but I do not see her changing her style whatsoever. She is a UFC fighter and that is it. I wouldn’t expect a good ol’ DDT or superplex any time soon. Ronda Rousey is the next Roman Reigns are she can perform 3-5 “power moves” then finish the match.

Result: Ronda Rousey wins the Raw Women’s Title

Grade: C+

The Worst finish in Summerslam ‘history’:

Roman Reigns defeated Brock Lesnar. Roman was the favorite walking in at -250 (bet $250 to win $100). This was the worst finish of the night. Before the match started, Mr. Monster in the Bank Braun Stroman came to the ring and said he would cash in on whomever won the belt. As the bell rang, Roman hit multiple superman punches and spears and knocked down the Beast Incarnate. Brock kicked out of a count and dodged another spear in which Reigns dove outside of the ring and into Stroman. Brock existed the ring, gave an F5 to Braun, beat him with a steel chair, and tossed Reigns back in the ring. Reigns bounced off the rope as Brock was going to strike with the same chair and hit him with a final spear. 1,2,3…

Result: Roman Reigns becomes the new Universal Champion

Result: B+ (A if Brock won)

Best finish: Miz prevails

The Miz battled his old protege Daniel Bryan in a technically wrestling match featured with tons of submission holds and kicks to the chest. I was up in the air with this match on whom would come out on top, but as a Miz fan, I was cheering for the guy who just had his first child with ex-diva Maryse. Miz went to the aid of his wife as she sat front row, she handed him brass-knuckles, and Miz finished Bryan off with a punch to the face.

Life after college….lol. Well, I’m currently writing this article on a coach bus from Boston to NH in a polo and dress pants. So, based off my first article, yes, life after college is still SPUN AS FUCK.

You graduated! Congrats! …. sike, that’s a fucking joke. Stay in college as long as you can. Even if your spinning and you think you need to get out of that place, your wrong. At least in college, your not completely miserable 24/7 even if it is because of all the shit you put in your system to make you feel otherwise. Let’s face it, we just came off the longest bender of our lives. We saw shit that we never seen before and will never see again. There was no such thing as responsibility, at least not any that really mattered to kids like us. There were no real consequences, no issues that couldn’t be solved with a drunk fight, no real stress at all to be honest.

Now your in the real world. You might think,”sweet, I can make a ton of money, I’m gonna run up the ladder in my new company, and retire early because I’m the shit.” Well, let me be the first to tell you that your dreams are not going to come true. It’s a grind is a understatement, and life after college is in fact miserable. Now to be fair, I haven’t even been out of college long and adults reading this are probably laughing. You know what, fuck those adults because there a lot closer to ending the misery than me. Maybe I’m just experiencing some culture shock, but the fact that I have no checkpoints, no end of the tunnel, no breaks in sight is terrifying. 45 more years of the same thing. Commuting into the city, making phone calls 9-5, and hating your boss, all just to repeat it the next day. Well at least you have the weekend, right? Well, not really. You get home on Friday, your tired. You try your best to go out and black the fuck out Saturday but your still kinda tired. Sunday? Forget about Sunday, it’s the most miserable day of the week knowing your about to start the cycle all over again.

“Your 20s are the best time of your life!” Hahah, that’s a load of shit. Sure, you meet new people, you may go out a few nights to the bar after work, your making real money, but in the end it’s all just to continue to be miserable. It’s quite possible it’s not completely our fault it’s this way, after all if your just coming out of college, you grew up pretty spoiled. No, I’m not saying all of you were babied or pampered growing up. Just the simple fact you got to grow up in a world that was so fucking sick. Late 90s thru the early to mid 2000s was a legitimate gift. The world was so different. Life was more simple. We were young, we could run wild till dark and not have a worry in the world. We watched some of the greatest sports dynasty’s, things were cheaper, music actually resonated with your everyday life, and business was BOOMING.

What happened? Well, I’m not smart enough to really know to be honest. People say the market crashed, regulations got more strict, the worlds more dangerous. All may be very well true but the thing I notice the most is the people. People in this world are not the same as they used to be. They’re more serious, they’re mean, they’re all about themselves, and they don’t plan on changing.

Sooooo, I ask myself, “am I miserable because the world is going down the tubes right in front of my eyes and a spun boy like myself can’t do anything to stop it. Or is being a spun boy one of the last true normal things I have left that I’m hanging on too.